


Contact

by eurusholmmes



Series: Remember The Garden (AU) [3]
Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, CT-6116 | Kix is a Good Bro, Force-Sensitive CT-6116 | Kix, Force-Sensitive Clone Troopers (Star Wars), Gen, Technically?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 18:14:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28764627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eurusholmmes/pseuds/eurusholmmes
Summary: It's common knowledge that the clones are touch starved. They rely heavily on contact with their other brothers to remind them that they are loved.Echo has needed this far more since he's been rescued from the Techno Union, and Kix is more then willing to give it to him.
Relationships: CT-21-0408 | CT-1409 | Echo & CT-6116 | Kix
Series: Remember The Garden (AU) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2105946
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	Contact

**Author's Note:**

> if ANY of you read this as clonecest.. they're brothers. Get out of here with that. 
> 
> Another instance of Force!Sensitive Kix and Echo after he's been rescued!

The first time Echo seeks contact from Kix is after he's been rescued from the Techno Union. The last year or more of his life has been nothing but _cold -_ he'd been a mindless machine attached to a bunch of cables when Fives and Rex had pulled him out of the stasis pod - and when he's brought back to the real world, everything is on _fire._

He doesn't feel like Echo. He feels like a ghost, and Fives looks at him like he is one. 

" _Sh, Echo." Echo looked at his older brother with wide, frightened eyes as Kix approached the medical table. "My team is going to look you over to ensure that you don't have any more internal and external injuries that they can heal." Gentle fingers turned Echo's chin in Kix's direction, and the medic smiled at his younger brother as he knelt to meet his gaze._

_"Kix?"_

_"Yeah?"_

Kix was and had always been gentle with Echo. It was why he was often who he fell back on when he was in need. Fives was there - _as he always was when Echo needed him_ \- but Kix understood suffering, and Echo needed someone who understood. 

" _Am I going to be okay?" Echo's voice was small, meek, as he met his brother's gaze with tears in his eyes. There was so much that the GAR didn't know about the Techno Union and the things that they were capable of. Echo had no desire for Kix and Fives to know the sins he'd committed for them._

_Kix pressed his hands against Echo's chest, intent on being able to use The Force to heal the internal injuries that had never quite healed right. The ache in his lungs, the atrophied muscles, the broken collarbone._

_"Yes, vod'ika." Not a statement, but a promise. "I'm gonna make you okay."_

Kix had passed out shortly after healing him. Still so new at The Force, but always willing to risk everything for his brothers. Echo decides that night as he lays between Fives and Kix - _safe_ \- that he is going to protect Kix, to make sure he takes care of himself. 

Someone should.

***

**#2**

The second time Echo seeks contact - but doesn't actually _ask_ for it - is when the 501st and the 212th share a campaign that Kix happens to accompany them on. Echo is manning the bridge, standing faithfully at the viewport with a skeleton crew, trying desperately to evade sleep. His nightmares are threatening to drown him. 

As always, Kix is there to keep him safe. 

Before Echo can realize what's going on, his entire body - _which is still cold, he can't seem to get warm on his own -_ is enveloped in warmth. Echo peers back behind him in confusion when he finds no one there. 

" _What the Kriff?"_

The ARC-Trooper sighs as a whisper sounds at his ear. " _Be quiet. You looked like you needed a hug."_ The whisper has a familiar voice, and it sounds strangely like Kix. 

The Jedi Padawan pokes his head out from around the corner and grins. He's gotten rather good at practicing masking his Force Signature and keeping himself relatively hidden. 

"Kix?" Echo calls out. 

"Yeah, vod." 

"Come here and give me a real hug, you idiot." 

Echo doesn't typically do this when they're around other brothers, but it's been a hard day and he's had no sleep, so he throws all caution to the wind and opens his arms for his older brother to fall into them. Kix comes willingly. The Jedi Force Healer envelops his little brother as tightly as he can, rocking the two of them back and forth as he cradles the back of Echo's head and envelops them both in the warmth and peace of The Force. 

The elder Domino twin grins and clasps his brothers shoulders before nuzzling his face in the crook of his neck. 

"Do you feel better, Echo?" Kix asks quietly. His eyes are fixated on the stars. His fingers trail circles absently over the plastoid of Echo's armor as Echo nestles himself in the safety of Kix's embrace. "Your Force Signature feels different." 

"I do." Echo replies. "I feel safe."

Echo finds that as the two of them stare out at the stars around the Star Destroyer that he is, indeed, telling the truth.

He _is_ safe. 

***

**#3**

The third time Echo seeks contact from Kix is in the aftermath of a particularly brutal nightmare. Fives is off doing his own thing - more often then not, anymore, and Kix spends more time in the barracks because Echo _needs_ him - and when he wakes up from another experiment, his hands are wrapped around Kix's throat. 

His older brother uses The Force to throw him off his body before Echo is _scrambling_ backward, tears in his eyes, and he launches his cybernetic across the room with the desire to burn the thing and never set eyes on it again. 

It's unfortunate those Mandalorians gave him a kriffing _beskar arm._

"No, no no no no no-" Echo shakes his head so hard he sees stars dancing in the corner of his vision as Kix slowly lifts his hand - his tremor, a side effect from war, ever prominent in times of distress - and wipes the blood away from his nose. Bruises bloom on the column of his neck as his glassy eyes meet Echo's. "Kix.. _Kix'ika,_ I didn't-" 

Echo is very fortunate that Kix has such a gentle soul. 

"I know you didn't, Echo." Kix's voice grates his ears as he replies. "I don't blame you. It's okay."

 _WHY WOULD YOU NOT BLAME ME? I BLAME MYSELF I NEARLY KILLED YOU-_ "I'm going to take you to the medbay." Kix slowly stands to his feet as Echo wraps his arm underneath his, pulling him against his side as they trek out of the barracks and travel down the hall towards the empty medbay. Echo sets his brother on a table and moves to retrieve a wet cloth to clean the blood from his face. "I promise.. I promise I didn't mean to." 

"You have such a gentle heart, Echo." Kix doesn't move even after Echo scrambles backward and presses himself against the wall. He's properly terrified out of his wits. "It's not your fault. The Techno Union.. the people who hurt you.. They're the evil ones. It's not you. It couldn't be." Kix blinks away tears as his hands smack the tops of his thighs. "You.. you're just so _good."_

Echo shakes his head. His brother is here, _injured,_ at his hand. He's kriffing insane. "I'm not-" He starts, then stops, then starts again. "Kix, they _wanted_ me to hurt you. They made me kill people and now they're going to make me kill you and Fives-" His fingers claw at the ports on his head and he wishes he could just rip them _off-_

"You are Echo." 

**He is Echo. CT-1409. An ARC Trooper. A brother. A man.**

"You are not a computer, or an algorithm. You are not a weapon." 

**He is safe.**

"You are my brother." 

**He is Kix's brother, and he will keep him safe.**

Echo takes a deep breath. His cybernetics are threatening to give out from beneath him as he fights for control of his breathing. "Brother." He says. It's a simple word. One he knows. 

"Brother. My brother, _our_ brother. Not a weapon.. but a good man." 

Kix rubs his fingers together and calls on The Force to aid in healing the bruises that have been inflicted upon his skin. "I'm sorry, Kix." Echo calls softly. "I would never hurt you on purpose." 

He sounds miserable. Kix resolves then that he will not let Echo suffer any more as long as he is around. His younger brother has suffered enough for three lifetimes and then some. He deserves some peace, deserves to see the stars he never shuts up about. 

"I know you wouldn't." His voice is hoarse as he works to repair what has been damaged. "I'm not mad. I'm scared.. for you." 

Echo ignores that. Kix doesn't need to be scared for him. He's a new Force Sensitive, a new Healer, he's a clone who is training to be a _Jedi._ Had Obi-Wan not fought tooth and nail to take him on as his Padawan, Kix would've been decommissioned by the Kaminoans. 

Echo doesn't know what he would've done if he'd had to live in a world without Kix and Fives. 

"Echo." 

Kix is on his feet, brow furrowed. Echo has made himself as small as he can and placed himself as far away from his older brother as possible. Fear bubbles low in his belly as they eye one another. "I-" Echo curses as he realizes just how small, how pathetic he sounds. He sounds like a cadet again. "I don't want to hurt you." 

"I don't want you to hurt me either." Kix confesses. "And besides, you took your cybernetic off." The brightest eyes Echo has seen among the vode lift to meet his own, gleaming with concern. Brother. Safe." 

Echo doesn't cry often. He and Fives both despise being vulnerable - only ever doing it in the rare moments around each other- but he can't help the way tears well in his eyes as his shoulders fall and his head drops. 

Kix uses that moment of opportunity to cross the gap between them and raise Echo's flesh hand to press it against his cheek. "Safe." Echo murmurs. He wants to hug Kix, but doesn't. It's the most unsure he's felt in quite a while. 

"It's okay." Kix whispers. "Take the contact." His entire body hurts and he's _exhausted,_ but he is open.. willing and gentle. So is the way of a Jedi Healer. 

Instead of giving Kix the hug Echo so desperately wants, his younger brother pulls him in for a Keldabe kiss instead. He's afraid. He doesn't want to hurt Kix. 

"I love you, little brother. You are _forgiven."_

And Echo accepts that, accepts that Kix had forgiven him, but forgiving himself would be significantly harder. "You really should get some sleep, Kixy." Kix grins playfully at the endearment. "I really did a number on you." 

"That sounds nice. Can you.. help me back to the barracks?" 

Echo nods. The two of them travel back to the barracks in silence. When it would usually be Echo seeking out contact, tonight it is Kix.. and he will be denied. It's okay though. There's a lot of forgiveness to go around. 

A lot of hugs to be had. 

"Sleep easy, brother." Echo murmurs as Kix curls in on himself, pulling the blanket over his body as he peers up at Echo through tired eyes. "I'm sorry." 

"It's okay, _vod'ika._ " Kix wraps his hand around Echo's arm and trails his thumb in slow circles. "I love you." 

"I love you too." 

When Echo snatches Kix's comm and hides it away - _his brother deserves the rest, he's always taking care of everyone but himself -_ he takes that split second of solitude before leaving the barracks to bend down and brush Kix's hair away from his forehead so he can press the ghost of a kiss upon the crown of his head before he leaves. 

He decides then that he has a word for Kix: _Darasuum._

Eternal.

His brother will outlive them all, and he will do Echo proud. He always does. 

**BONUS:**

The next time Echo receives a hug is in the aftermath of Kix purging the Techno Union's control from his mind. He scrambles for contact on his older brother as the two of them collapse to the floor, Echo's beskar fingers tangled in Kix's blacks as Kix cradles his head in his hands and presses their foreheads together. 

" _I will keep you safe."_

Echo smiles and raises his flesh hand to tangle in Kix's hair. He wasn't sure what it was before, but now he feels the warmth that floods his body in the aftermath of what may be the most terrifying experience of his life and _knows_ that it is Kix. 

" _And I will keep you close..."_

Not just the words to another song. It's a promise.

One they both intend to keep. 


End file.
